Eastland edged Hinckley-Big Rock, 36-33, in the DeKalb Supersectional and will advance to the state tournament for the first time in the program's history.

"We made history and it's awesome," Walker said.

Eastland trailed after the first quarter, but took command in the second quarter after a 10-0 run gave the Cougars a 17-10 lead that included a Walker 3 and a jumper from Annie Forster.

Forster scored all four of her points off the bench in the second quarter and Eastland led at halftime, 19-12.

"We've been working on the whole depth thing the whole year," Eastland coach Colleen Finn-Henze said. "Forster came in for us big in the first half and she's like a starter to me anyway, but we can only start five."

Eastland's lead grew to its biggest (27-17) after a score from Lexie Macomber (team-high 14 points) with 3:39 left in the third quarter. But the Royals became aggressive.

Very aggressive.

"It was almost like a football match out there," Walker said.

Jacqueline Madden (game-high 17 points, seven steals) jumped passing lanes and H-BR's press wore down Eastland. The Royals eventually cut the Cougars' lead to 34-33 with 42.8 seconds left in the fourth.

"We got into a situation where things were very close, tight and scary," Macomber said. "But we pulled out of it."

Eastland was in the double bonus after Lauren Paver fouled Walker (seven points) and made one attempt for a 35-33 lead. The Cougars made a defensive stop before Walker took an intentional foul. Walker made her second attempt for Eastland's final point.

"I knew when I went to the line and thought I really need to get these in," said Walker, whose hands were still slightly shaking after the game. "We have to get a better lead than what we have right now.

"I just took a deep breath, got myself together and put one of them in."

Eastland had the possession, but couldn't make the inbounds pass as H-BR stole the ball for one final play.

"I just kept telling everyone to relax because I thought it was would help," Macomber said. "Everyone just must have stayed relaxed because we got the job done."

The Royals took two desperate attempts, a missed 3-pointer and a heave from Madden on a failed putback attempt to try and draw a foul.

"We kept our composure and stayed low," Walker said.

The Cougars will play Friday in the state semifinal against last year's state third-place Annawan. Annawan brought last year's Aquin team to the brink of losing in the semifinals, but Aquin won by a point en route to a second straight state championship.

This is the first time in Finn-Henze's 23-year career with the Cougars that the team has reached state, though some of her teams, including the 1995-96 and 2003-04 programs, came pretty close.

"It was always so heartbreaking not being able to take those teams to state," said Finn-Henze with her eyes welling up. "There were some deserved teams that couldn't make it out when playing teams like Byron, Hampshire - who's now 3A - and even Prophetstown.

"We ran into some tough teams and even if you have a really good team, it's hard to get there. So to have these guys break through is cool. We did it. I don't know how, but we got 'er done."